Audiobus: Use your music apps together.

What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is
an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use
your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite
synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like
GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output
for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a
synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI
keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear.
And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.

TC-Data + Gestrument?

TC-Data is a breeze to get working with most every synth I've tried... Nave, Animoog, Magellan, Z3TA+, ThumbJam, SampleTank... Having lots of fun. Huge time suck. This does not get old. More than a great app, this is an important app. But for the life of me, I can't seem to get it to work with Gestrument!

Can't find Gestrument's Background Audio toggle, even though app description & updates in the App Store say it's supported. I really want to leverage it's SoundFont capabilities, ostensibly a different orchestral instrument in each of it's eight banks, with a touch gesture & motion mapping patch in TC-Data. Can this be done?

Comments

@Ploughdeep I think that Gestrument's Background Audio is always switched on. That's why there's no toggle. However, it seems to function going out (Gestrument-to-app), but not coming in (app-to-Gestrument).

Like you, I couldn't get TC-Data to work as an interface for Gestrument. I tried every combination I could. I did get Gestrument to work as an interface for Alchemy Mobile, after I switched on Background Audio in Alchemy Mobile.

The MIDI in on Gestrument is for control parameters. I don't think Gestrument parses incoming note data, nor does it claim to in the app description. There's a section where you set up the parameters using MIDI learn, but obviously the app used to control it has to be sending CC data in order for it to work. You can test background audio mode by recording your playing in Gestrument and switching away during playback. The whole point of Gestrument is to generate notes dynamically based on parameters, not to be a simple tone bank.

I think you're right @paulb. I hadn't ever even considered controlling gestrument from another app — it's meant to control other apps! Once I read the OP though I considered what would happen if I could sequence gestrument's note generation using a very slow tempo from xynthesizer. Now I want it!

Q: Why can’t I play on Gestrument from my external synth now when Gestrument allows MIDI input?

A: Gestrument is not a synthesizer, it’s a MIDI controller and/or MIDI generator. The reason we added MIDI input into Gestrument is to be able to control the different parameters of the app by outside sliders and other controllers. If it were to listen to outside sources for MIDI notes there might be a problem as to which information it should focus on, the external MIDI or the MIDI generated from the touch screen. It would conflict and give strange results. If you like the Soundfont we have included it is much better to load that to a Soundfont player (there are many free sf-players for Mac and PC) in you computer or to an app like bs-16i that is a pure soundfont player for iOS.

Sorry to dig up an older post, but it was linked from a newer one . It's definitely possible (and quite fun) to automate Gestrument using CC messages. I've done it quite a bit with Lemur and it's a blast watching Gestrument play itself.

I can get TC-Data to control Thumbjam, but only one instrument at a time. With other controllers (Gestrument, for example) it is possible to control multiple instruments simultaneously - I can't seem to do this with TC-Data; where am I going wrong?

TC-Data is performance oriented and focuses on being able to use the touch interface and sensors in the iPad to control other apps and hardware. You can use the presets or create your own. Can control via midi and osc.

Thanks @Paulinko, you see I'm in two minds as to getting this or remaining with Lemur, may have to see if it goes on sale, then try it, to see if it works for me. In the new year I'll be going out performing, so I'm looking at the different options for controlling my hardware and also maybe for a non-standard hardware controller for the iPad. Even though there are quite a few good standard and non-standard hardware controllers out there, it's hard to find out if they're compatible with the iPad or iOS 8, as quite a few other contributors to the forum seem to be running into this problem.